Marketing of merchandise is ubiquitous in today's retailing environment. Typically, marketing of merchandise may take many forms ranging from print advertising to television advertisements to mass mailings, etc. By way of example, print ads may take the form of direct mailings, newspapers, magazines, journals, press releases, posters, billboards, etc.
Additionally, in the retail environment, it has become common to advertise in the store, itself, by way of signs, posters and other print media. In recent years, though, with the advent of new technologies, it has become common for retail stores to display merchandise to the consumer directly on a static display. In this manner, retail companies have been leveraging information technology (IT) to market and sell to consumers.
A significant problem with the way that these technologies are currently being explored is that they tend to be passive and rely on consumer motivation. Also, these technologies do not provide a useful experience for the consumer. For example, current uses of IT to market to consumers in retail settings are noticeably passive in nature. Examples such as plasma/LCD displays push advertisements for kiosks which provide merchandise directories or limited guided selling tools in stores. Also, such technologies operate in fixed locations and rely entirely upon the consumer to actively engage them, while providing limited incentive for engagement. In a retail environment, such passivity makes little sense from a return-on-investment perspective.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.